F.J.  Hall 


The  Bible 
and 
Modern  Criticism 


f 


War^cH  r 


Z3t>e  SibU 
anb  Mlo6ern  (Triticlsm 


Francis  J.  Hall,  D.d, 


printed  by 

Guide  Printing  and  Publishing  Co. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

BE'SOo 

,H! 


Warflefd  Librae  & 

OCT  16 

The  Bible 
and  Modern  Criticism 


By        J 

The  Rev.  Francis  J.  Hall,  D.D. 


Reprinted  From  the 

Trinity  Parish  Record 

New  York  City 


MILWAUKEE,  WISCONSIN 

THE  YOUNG  CHURCHMAN  CO. 

1915 


\J 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  WORD  OF  GOD 

MY  aim  in  these  articles  is  to  define 
the  ancient  doctrine  of  the 
Church  concerning  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Bible,  to  point  ont  some  com- 
mon mistakes  about  it,  to  show  that  mod- 
ern criticism  has  not  shaken  it,  and  to 
give  some  hints  as  to  the  proper  use  of 
the  Bible. 

1.     What  the  Bible  Is 

The  Bible  is  a  library  containing  a 
great  variety  of  documents,  documents 
which  were  written  at  different  stages  in 
the  growth  of  true  religion.  Moreover, 
when  we  separate  its  books  and  documents 
from  each  other,  and  consider  them  with- 
out reference  to  their  mutual  connections 
in  the  Bible  at  large,  we  find  that  they 


have  very  unequal  spiritual  values.  But 
when  we  consider  the  completed  library — 
I  mean  the  existing  Bible  as  a  whole — 
we  learn  that  it  has  a  much  higher  spirit- 
ual value  than  that  of  a  miscellaneous  col- 
lection of  ancient  documents.  It  reveals 
to  those  who  siudy  it  rightly,  an  organic 
unity,  and  a  spiritual  quality  in  its  unity, 
which  cannot  be  found  in  any  other  li- 
brary known  to  man. 

Its  unity  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
a  divinely  inspired  selective  principle  and 
purpose  has  controlled  the  Church — Jew- 
ish and  Christian — in  forming  the  Sacred 
Canon.  In  obedience  to  this  principle 
those  documents,  whatever  their  origins 
and  separate  values  may  have  been,  and 
those  only,  have  been  incorporated  into 
the  Bible  which  serve  to  exhibit  for  the 
edification  of  true  believers  the  divine 
education  of  Israel,  and  the  growth  of  true 
religion. 

Its  spiritual  value  as  a  whole  is  similar- 
ly explained.  Even  the  parts  which,  by 
themselves,  seem  inferior,  are  found  to 
afford  illuminating  contexts  to  the  supe- 
rior parts.  And  they  help  us  to  under- 
stand how  patient  God  was  with  the  low 


ideals  of  His  sin-blinded  chosen  people, 
not  displacing  them  suddenly,  but  even 
using  them  until  He  could  educate  His 
people  out  of  them.  The  Bible  contains 
memorials  of  a  long  process  of  very  grad- 
ual divine  teaching.  But  it  also  exhibits 
Israel's  own  mind  at  each  stage,  his  pagan 
traditions,  the  kind  of  history  that  he  pre- 
served, and  the  notions  of  God,  and  of 
His  Will,  at  which  he  had  arrived.  Just 
because  the  Bible  does  so  faithfully  do 
this,  it  enables  us  more  intelligently  to 
interpret  the  comparatively  defective  ele- 
ments of  divine  teaching  which  the  Old 
Testament  preserves,  and  to  see  in  them 
the  best  teaching  that  the  then  existing 
conditions  permitted  to  be  given.  We  see 
how  patiently  God  accommodated  His 
revelations  to  the  slow  growth  of  Israel's 
spiritual  understanding. 

If  the  Holy  Spirit  had  inspired  Old  Tes- 
tament writers  in  such  wise  as  to  elimi- 
nate from  what  they  wrote  every  trace 
of  historical,  moral  and  religious  error — 
that  is,  all  defective  elements  of  their 
mental  traditions, — the  Old  Testament 
would  fail  to  serve  the  purpose  for  which 
the  Spirit  has  guided  the  Church  to  edit, 


collect,  preserve  and  canonize  its  contents. 
This  purpose  is  not  to  furnish  us  with  a 
series  of  oracles,  all  equally  spiritual  and 
inerrant.  Bather  it  is  to  edify  us  in  the 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  by  show- 
ing us  how  God's  people  were  prepared 
for  the  proclamation  of  that  faith. 

Accordingly  we  read  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  the  light  of  the  New.  This  does 
not  require  us  to  think  that  Old  Testament 
writers  meant  all  that  we  Christians  find 
in  their  writings.  It  shows  that,  in  the 
biblical  context  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  given  their  words  to  us,  these  words 
have  acquired  new  values.  They  help  in 
exhibiting  to  us  the  progress  of  a  divine 
purpose  which,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
could  not  have  been  so  clearly  under- 
stood by  Old  Testament  writers  as  they 
are  by  those  who  have  since  received  the 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  sum  of  the  matter  is  that  the  Bible 
is  given  to  us  in  order  that  we  may  deepen 
our  hold  upon  true  religion  by  consider- 
ing its  growth,  as  well  as  its  final  form. 
In  the  light  of  this  purpose  of  God's  gift, 
and  because  the  Bible  is  His  gift,  we  call 
it  the  Word  of  God. 


2.     Biblical  Inspiration 

That  the  Bible  as  a  whole— the  Bible 
which  we  have — is  a  special  product  of 
the  Holy  Spirit's  overruling  work,  and 
that  it  has  been  given  us  by  God  to  be  read 
for  edification  in  the  faith  which  we  have 
received  from  Jesus  Christ,  this  is  the 
doctrine  of  biblical  inspiration. 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  inspiration,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  theories  which  men  have 
set  forth  concerning  the  manner  of  its 
production,  or  the  inspiration  of  its 
writers.  We  need  carefully  to  distinguish 
here  between  the  inspiration,  or  divine 
authority,  of  the  Bible,  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  writers  of  the  documents  which 
have  gone  into  the  making  of  the  Bible. 
It  is  the  divine  authority  of  the  Bible,  of 
the  finished  and  unified  product,  that  is 
necessary  for  us  to  receive,  if  we  would 
accept  God's  holy  Word. 

We  of  course  believe  that  "no  prophecy 
ever  came  by  the  will  of  man:  but  men 
spake  from  God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost"  (2  St.  Pet.  i.  21,  E.  V.);  and  that 
God  spake  unto  the  fathers  by  the  proph- 
ets (Heb.  i.  1.  Cf.  Nicene  Creed,  "Who 


spake  by  the  prophets " ) .  In  many 
prophecies  of  Scripture  it  is  declared, 
'  'Thus  saith  the  Lord";  and  supernatural 
inspiration  of  the  writers  is  made  appar- 
ent in  many  parts  of  the  Bible  by  their 
marvellous  spiritual  quality.  But  not  all 
parts  of  Scripture  are  prophecy;  and 
some  parts  do  not  in  themselves  betray 
any  supernatural  quality.  The  divine  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible  does  not  depend 
upon  all  parts  of  it  having  been  originally 
produced  by  supernaturally  inspired 
writers,  certainly  not  upon  equal  degrees 
in  their  inspiration.  It  arises  from  the 
fact  that,  whatever  kind  of  labor  may 
have  gone  into  the  manufacture  of  the 
Bible's  documentary  materials,  these  ma- 
terials have  been  built  together  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  into  unity — into  one  Bible, — 
and  this  Bible  has  been  given  to  us  by  God 
as  His  Word. 

The  Bible,  thus  fused  into  unity,  is  the 
Word  of  God.  This  does  not  mean  that 
God  either  dictated  its  language,  or  made 
all  of  its  writers  infallible.  It  means  that 
He  has  somehow  made  and  sanctioned  the 
Bible  for  a  specific  purpose ;  and  that  for 
this  purpose  He  has  given  it  to  us  through 


His  Church.  How  it  serves  its  purpose, 
and  how  we  are  to  read  it,  must  be  deter- 
mined by  reading  it  with  its  purpose  in 
mind — the  purpose,  that  is,  of  making  us 
"wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus "  (2  Tim.  iii.16). 

3.     Illustration 

The  Bible  is  the  product  of  a  long  pro- 
cess of  building,  and  may  be  helpfully 
compared  in  certain  ways  to  a  great  cru- 
ciform Church.  The  Church  is  inspired, 
has  its  structure  and  coherent  beauty 
determined  by  its  architect  and  by 
the  purpose  for  which  it  is  designed. 
But  all  sorts  of  work  enter  into  it — in- 
telligent and  unintelligent,  skilled  labor 
and  unskilled  labor.  Some  of  the  shapers 
of  its  materials  have,  partly  at  least, 
understood  the  architect's  plan,  and  have 
been  consciously  guided  thereby.  Others 
— day  laborers — have  not  understood  it. 

The  assembled  materials  have  been 
used  in  different  relations  to  the  whole, 
and  have  unequal  values.  Some  of  them 
— for  example,  rough  blocks  of  stone — 
owe  their  meaning  wholly  to  the  use  made 
of  them  in  the  building.    And  they  would 


instantly  lose  this  meaning  if  they  were 
removed  from  the  building.  And  the 
meaning  is  determined  by  the  edifice  as  a 
whole — by  the  architect's  plan,  and  by  the 
purpose  which  the  building  is  to  serve. 

This  central  meaning  and  purpose  dom- 
inates the  building  throughout.  Its  cru- 
ciform structure  shows  that  the  purpose 
is  Christian.  The  sanctuary,  with  its 
glorious  altar,  obviously  interprets  the 
entire  Church  as  intended  for  the  euchar- 
istic  worship  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ. 
It  is  a  Church — not  a  mere  assemblage  of 
fine  building  material.  In  fact  its  signifi- 
cant value  is  not  interfered  with  in  the 
least,  if  some  of  its  materials,  the  foun- 
dation materials,  are  found  to  be  rough 
boulders. 

So  it  is  with  the  Bible.  The  mere  as- 
semblage of  documents  does  not  make  the 
Bible,  nor  are  its  documents  of  equal 
value  and  interpretative  meaning.  Some 
of  them  came  from  alien  quarries,  perhaps, 
and  retain  much  of  their  original  crude- 
ness.  But  a  divine  Architect  has  ordered 
their  bringing  together,  and  has  put  men 
to  building  out  of  them  something  gran- 
der and  nobler  than  the  builders  them- 

10 


selves  have  understood.  The  Cross 
shapes  the  whole,  and  Christ  is  its  sanc- 
tuary, its  interpretative  climax.  And  the 
completed  whole  is  the  Bible,  the  unified 
and  coherent  Word  of  God.  What  mat- 
ters where  its  materials  were  obtained! 
As  might  be  ^expected,  some  of  them  are 
glorious,  shaped  by  inspired  workman* 
ship.  But  what  determines  the  combined 
result,  and  the  ultimate  meaning  of  each 
and  every  part,  is  the  dominant  purpose 
of  the  whole — Jesus  Christ  and  the  mys- 
teries of  His  kingdom.  Such  is  the  Bible, 
the  Word  of  God. 


11 


CHAPTER  II 
MISTAKES  ABOUT  THE  BIBLE 

CHRISTIANS  of  old  received  the 
Bible  in  its  completed  form  from 
the  Church,  and  on  her  authority 
believed  it  to  be  the  Word  of  God.  They 
received  it  uncritically,  no  doubt,  but  they 
put  its  claim  to  the  very  best  possible  test 
— that  of  the  Bible's  working  value  in 
making  them  "wise  unto  salvation 
through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 
Moved  by  reverence  for  the  Bible,  they 
quickly  inferred  that  its  several  contents 
were  unlike  any  other  literature,  and  de- 
veloped theories  concerning  its  produc- 
tion which  this  same  reverence  dictated. 
These  ideas  gradually  came  to  be  re- 
garded as  necessary  parts  of  the  doctrine 
of  biblical  inspiration;  and  this  explains 
the  alarm  which  is  felt  when  they  are  dis- 
proved by  critical  investigation  of  biblical 
documents.     But  abundant  reasons  exist 

13 


for  believing  that,  when  criticism  has 
done  its  work,  the  doctrine  that  the  Bible 
is  the  Word  of  God  will  be  strengthened 
rather  than  weakened  thereby. 

1.     Mistakes  as  to  its  Production 

As  the  Word  of  God,  the  Bible  has  di- 
vine authority  throughout.  This  is  ex- 
pressed by  the  phrase  "plenary  inspira- 
tion/J  But  such  inspiration  does  not 
necessarily  determine  how  the  Bible  was 
produced.  It  merely  defines  the  authority 
of  the  organic  whole.* 

Christians  have  inferred,  however,  that 
no  ordinary  or  natural  methods  could 
have  been  used  in  producing  the  literary 
materials  of  the  Bible ;  and  in  support  of 
this,  the  fact  has  been  urged  that  many 
parts  of  the  Bible  show  plain  traces  of 
supernatural  illumination  of  their  writ- 
ers. And  so  it  has  been  generally  believed 
that  all  biblical  writers  were  supernatur- 
ally  assisted;  and  many  have  added  that 
all  the  sacred  writers  were  inspired  to  an 
equal  degree.  Some  have  even  declared 
that  every  ivord  of  the  Bible  was  dictated 
by  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  is  called  the 
verbal  theory. 

14 


It  has  not  been  realized  that  the  biblical 
value  of  a  given  part  of  Scripture  may  be 
due  to  its  place  and  connection  in  the 
Bible,  rather  than  to  its  human  writer's 
illumination.  Perhaps  no  part  of  Scrip- 
ture has  failed  to  acquire,  in  its  biblical 
context  and  connection,  higher  value  and 
richer  meaning  than  its  writer  was  con- 
scious of. 

We  need  not  suppose  that,  if  God  in- 
tended to  make  a  Bible  for  our  use,  He 
must  have  resorted  to  peculiar  methods 
at  every  stage  in  the  process,  and  must 
have  immediately  controlled  each  biblical 
writer.  It  is  as  if  a  cathedral  could  not 
truly  embody  the  idea  and  purpose  of  its 
architect,  unless  he  gave  direct  personal 
guidance  to  all  the  workmen  (in  the  quar- 
ries and  elsewhere)  who  were  employed 
in  shaping  its  materials.  We  know  that 
the  workmen  in  such  a  case  have  very  un- 
equal knowledge  of  the  parts  they  are 
performing,  and  unequal  skill.  Yet  their 
labour  ministers  to  a  structural  result 
which  transcends  their  highest  thought. 

The  Scriptures  retain  clear  traces  of 
their  making,  and  biblical  scholars  have 
been  examining  them  for  evidence  as  to 

15 


the  degree  of  inspiration  enjoyed  by  bib- 
lical writers.  The  results  of  this  study 
have  seemed  conclusive,  and  can  be  veri- 
fied by  any  serious  student.  Some  parts 
of  Scripture  show  traces  of  high  degrees 
of  inspiration,  and  others  of  lower  de- 
grees; while  still  others  might  have  been 
produced,  seemingly,  without  any  per- 
sonal inspiration. 

\  Verbal  dictation  by  the  Holy  Spirit  be- 
comes an  incredible  supposition  in  the 
light  of  such  results.  Moreover,  in  very 
many  instances,  the  Bible  does  not  pre- 
serve the  exact  original  wording  of  the 
documents  contained  in  it.  This  fact  is  of 
no  moment  to  us ;  but,  if  the  verbal  theory 
had  to  be  maintained,  we  should  have  to 
confess  that  we  no  longer  have  the  Word 
of  God. 

2.     Mistakes  as  to  its  Qualities 

To  many  Christians  it  has  seemed  to  be 
an  irreverent  idea  that  imperfect  mate- 
rials should  be  discoverable  in  the  Word 
of  God.  And  so  it  has  been  urged  that  no 
errors  of  any  kind  can  be  found  in  Scrip- 
ture, whether  historical,  scientific,  doc- 
trinal or  moral.       All  the  writers,  it  is 

16 


urged,  must  have  been  assisted  at  least  so 
far  as  to  make  their  several  contributions 
to  the  Bible  inerrant.  How,  it  is  said,  can 
we  accept  the  authority  of  the  Bible  in  cer- 
tain statements  and  teachings,  if  we  re- 
ject any  of  them? 

Praiseworthy  as  is  the  motive  which  dic- 
tates such  an  argument,  the  argument  is 
neither  required  by  belief  that  the  Bible 
has  divine  authority  for  its  inspired  pur- 
pose, nor  consistent  with  verifiable  facts. 
If  God  had  designed  the  Bible  to  be  a  li- 
brary of  universal  information,  we  should 
be  justified,  no  doubt,  in  treating  every- 
thing in  it  as  absolutely  conclusive  in  the 
subjects  involved.  But  the  Bible  was 
really  given  to  make  men  ' i  wise  unto  sal- 
vation through  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,' '  by  affording  for  their  devout 
study  such  memorials  of  the  long  growth 
of  true  religion  as  were  calculated  to  show 
them  the  manner  in  which  God  prepared 
His  chosen  people  for  the  revelation  of 
the  Gospel. 

It  was  inconsistent  with  this  purpose 
that  the  errors  and  spiritual  misconcep- 
tions of  early  ages  should  be  expunged 
from  Scripture.     It  is  just  because  the 

17 


writers  were  true  to  the  imperfect  histor- 
ical, scientific  and  spiritual  conceptions  of 
their  own  times,  that  what  they  wrote  af- 
fords to  us  an  illuminating  context  to  the 
progressive  divine  teaching*  which  they 
also  contain.  The  errors  found  in  the 
Bible  are  not  divine  but  human,  and  they 
are  left  uncorrected  in  the  Bible  because 
they  lend  themselves  to  the  practical  pur- 
pose for  which  God  has  given  Holy  Scrip- 
ture to  us. 

Many  of  these  errors,  while  they  help 
us  to  understand  the  conditions  under 
which  true  religion  grew,  have  no  other 
bearing  on  the  Christian  use  of  the  Bible, 
and  are  harmless.  To  give  an  important 
illustration,  Whether  the  story  in  Genesis 
of  Adam's  sin  and  punishment  is  to  be 
taken  as  exact  history,  or  as  largely  sym- 
bolical, should  be  decided  by  the  likeli- 
hoods of  the  case,  as  viewed  in  the  light 
of  our  accumulated  knowledge.  But  our 
decision  can  in  no  case  disturb  the  catholic 
doctrine  of  man's  fall;  because  this  doc- 
trine was  not  derived  from  that  story,  but 
from  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of  re- 
demption. Because  we  already  believe 
the  catholic  doctrine,  we  discover  on  read- 

18 


ing  the  Genesis  narrative  that,  whether 
taken  historically  or  symbolically,  it  is 
true  to  Christian  doctrine.  We  therefore 
naturallv  regard  it  as  confirming  our  be- 
lief. 

It  is  the  "faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus"  with  which  we  are  concerned  in 
our  use  of  the  Bible;  and  so  long  as  the 
facts  upon  which  this  faith  depends  for 
certainty  are  well  established,  errors  of 
detail  in  Scripture  are  of  no  moment  to  us, 
provided  they  are  not  such  as  to  upset  the 
suitableness  of  the  Bible  as  an  illuminat- 
ing memorial  of  the  growth,  under  divine 
guidance,  of  true  religion. 

3.     Mistakes  as  to  its  Use 

These  are  chiefly  two :  to  treat  the  Bible 
as  the  source  of  Christian  doctrine,  and 
to  depend  upon  its  several  passages  as  so 
many  proof-texts — self-sufficient,  self-in- 
terpreting and  of  equal  value.  These  two 
are  practically  one. 

Everyone  can  verify  for  himself  the 
historic  fact  that  the  Christian  faith  was 
being  taught  by  the  Church,  and  was  ap- 
plied by  believers  to  daily  life,  before  one 
word  of  the   New  Testament  had  been 

19 


written ;  and  at  every  stage  of  divine  reve- 
lation, the  several  Scriptures  were  written 
after  their  doctrine  had  been  given  to  the 
Church,  whether  Jewish  or  Christian. 
Speaking  generally,  the  Bible  is  a  product 
of  the  Church's  faith,  rather  than  the 
source  of  it. 

The  Bible  does  indeed  bear  witness  to 
all  saving  doctrine,  although  not  after  the 
manner  of  a  definitive  manual  of  refer- 
ence, so  much  as  incidentally  and  often 
very  indirectly.  Let  us  take  St.  Paul's 
epistles  as  an  illustration.  They  were 
episcopal  charges,  in  which  Bishop  Paul, 
to  use  modern  description,  dealt  in  a  prac- 
tical way  with  passing  emergencies,  and, 
to  enforce  his  admonitions,  reminded 
those  under  his  episcopal  jurisdiction  of 
the  truths  which  they  had  already  learned. 
He  did  not  define  these  doctrines  in  a  for- 
mal way,  but  used  such  informal  terms  as 
the  circumstances  required.  The  Church's 
"form  of  sound  words"  is  everywhere 
taken  for  granted. 

Nowhere  in  the  Bible  is  the  Christian 
faith  given  formal  definition.  Its  doc- 
trines are  often  alluded  to,  and  in  ways 
that  help  us  to  verify  our  own  knowledge 

20 


of  them.  But,  without  the  knowledge 
which  the  Church  gives  us,  we  should  fall 
into  difficulties.  The  protestant  world 
treats  the  Bible  as  the  sole  source  of 
Christian  doctrine.  The  result  is  a  con- 
fusing babel  of  many  faiths,  all  profess- 
edly deduced  from  the  Bible.  The  catho- 
lic world  treats  the  Bible  as  the  Church's 
book,  and  as  presupposing  the  Church's 
teaching.  The  result  is  that  the  catholic 
faith  is  substantially  the  same  every- 
where. 

Because  the  Scriptures  do  in  informal, 
incidental  and  manifold  ways  bear  wit- 
ness to  all  necessary  doctrines,  they  serve 
as  a  means  of  verifying  and  confirming 
what  the  Church  teaches;  and  any  doc- 
trine which  cannot  thus  be  verified  we 
know  to  be  non-primitive  and  not  neces- 
sary to  be  believed  for  salvation.  We 
cannot  safely  divorce  the  Bible  from  the 
Church,  because  when  we  do  so  the  Bible 
becomes  obscure,  and  confusion  results. 


21 


CHAPTER  III 
RESULTS  OF  MODERN  CRITICISM 

BY  results  of  modern  criticism  I 
mean  the  conclusions  which,  in  the 
present  state  of  investigation,  are 
generally  thought  to  be  established.  They 
may,  of  course,  be  modified  hereafter  in 
details,  but  in  their  general  substance 
they  seem  to  be  permanent. 

1.  Literary  Criticism. 

Literary  or  "higher''  criticism  has 
shown  that  some  of  the  books  of  the  Bible 
are  made  up  of  several  documents  by  dif- 
ferent authors,  e.g.  the  Book  of  Isaiah; 
also  that  some  of  them  are  pseudonymous — 
not  written  by  the  author  named.  This  was 
according  to  recognized  ancient  practice, 
and  was  not  the  result  of  fraudulent  in- 
tention. But  the  practice  has  led,  none 
the  less,  to  mistakes  in  later  ages.    The 

23 


Book  of  Daniel  is  a  case  in  point.  It  was 
not  written  by  Daniel,  but  by  some  writer 
of  the  second  century  before  Christ. 

The  most  startling  result  of  literary 
criticism,  however,  is  the  discovery  that 
the  so  called  Books  of  Moses  are  an  in- 
terweaving of  several  documents,  no  one 
of  which  reached  its  present  form  until 
centuries  after  Moses  died;  and  it  has 
been  urged  that  our  Lord  was  in  error  in 
ascribing  the  Law  to  Moses. 

But,  according  to  the  Gospels,  Christ 
did  not  assert  that  Moses  wrote  anything. 
He  simply  quoted  the  Pentateuch  in  the 
customary  manner.  He  did  not  at  all  con- 
cern Himself  with  critical  questions.  If 
I  should  quote  Homer  as  saying  thus  and 
so,  I  would  not  commit  myself  to  any 
opinion  as  to  the  controversy  concerning 
Homeric  authorship. 

The  vital  question  for  us  is  not  at  all 
whether  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch,  but 
whether  that  collection  of  documents  lends 
itself  to  the  real  purpose  of  the  Bible. 
Does  it  contain  illuminating  memorials  of 
the  growth  of  true  religion?  It  certainly 
does,  and  is  therefore  a  suitable  part  of 
the   Bible.     Its    authority   for   us   rests 

24 


neither  upon  its  authorship,  nor  upon  the 
dates  of  its  documents,  but  upon  the  fact 
that  God  has  given  it  to  us  as  part  of  His 
Word. 

2.  Scientific  and  Historical  Criticism. 

(a)  The  sciences  of  astronomy,  geol- 
ogy, biology  and  ethnology  have  made 
great  advances  in  recent  generations,  and 
have  upset  traditional  ideas — including 
those  imbedded  in  the  Book  of  Genesis — 
as  to  the  antiquity  of  man,  the  deluge  and 
the  manner  of  the  physical  origin  of  the 
human  species.  Many  have  unsuccess- 
fully tried  to  show,  by  new  interpreta- 
tions, that  the  biblical  accounts  of  prehis- 
toric developments  of  the  universe  and  of 
man  are  scientifically  accurate.  But  the 
attempt  is  futile. 

Genesis  embodies  the  ideas  on  such  sub- 
jects which  prevailed  when  its  documents 
were  written ;  using  them,  however,  as  ve- 
hicles of  the  true  doctrines  that  God  is  the 
maker  of  all  things,  and  that  human  sin 
originated  in  creaturely  perversity — not 
in  any  necessity  for  which  God  is  respon- 
sible. Thus  was  preserved  for  our  edi- 
fication a  picture  of  the  conditions  of  hu- 

25 


man  knowledge  and  opinion  under  which 
these  doctrines  were  imparted  to  Israel. 
It  was  not  necessary  that  a  scientifically 
accurate  cosmogony  should  be  revealed  to 
Israel,  for  growth  in  true  religion  is  not 
dependent  upon  this ;  and  God  does  not  re- 
veal things  merely  to  gratify  curiosity,  in 
advance  of  scientific  investigation.  Rather 
He  uses  men's  existing  ideas  of  natural 
things  as  means  of  spiritual  teaching.  All 
experience  shows  this  to  be  the  wisest 
and  least  confusing  method  of  teaching 
human  beings  concerning  such  things. 

(b)  Historical  criticism  has  also  been 
much  improved  in  modern  days,  and  it  has 
brought  into  very  clear  light,  what  the 
more  thoughtful  readers  of  Scripture 
have  always  suspected,  that  the  interests 
of  historical  accuracy,  as  we  understand 
them,  were  not  keenly  felt  by  biblical 
writers.  Indeed  the  ancients  did  not  look 
at  this  subject  as  we  do,  and  were  satis- 
fied if  they  gave  a  true  general  impression 
of  the  past.  As  ancient  histories  go,  early 
literature  contains  no  collection  of  his- 
tories that  can  compare  in  illuminating 
value  with  the  Old  Testament  historical 
books.    But  many  inconsistencies  of  de- 

26 


tail  are  found  in  their  narratives;  and 
their  statements  are  not  always  in  accord 
with  reliable  knowledge  obtained  from 
contemporary  inscriptions  and  other  cred- 
ible sources. 

Even  the  Gospel  narratives,  unquestion- 
ably true  as  they  have  been  proved  to  be 
in  their  general  tenour,  and  in  the  vital 
elements  of  their  accounts  of  our  Lord's 
earthly  life  and  teaching,  cannot  be  har- 
monized in  some  details.  Thus  the  first 
three  Gospels  describe  our  Lord  as  eat- 
ing the  Passover  feast  in  the  evening  of 
His  betrayal,  while  the  fourth  Gospel 
does  not  agree  with  this.  In  several  in- 
stances the  language  of  our  Lord  is  re- 
ported with  variations  which  cannot  all 
be  in  exact  verbal  accord  with  what  He 
said. 

But  it  does  not  matter.  That  we  gain  a 
true  impression  of  Christ  and  His  teach- 
ing from  the  Gospels,  and  that  all  the 
vital  facts  there  given  can  be  depended 
on,  is  far  more  certain  than  would  be  the 
case  if  no  minor  divergencies  and  incon- 
sistencies were  discoverable.  These  varia- 
tions show  the  absence  of  collusion;  and 
although  the  Gospels  are  not  wholly  inde- 

27 


pendent  of  each  other,  they  give  clear  evi- 
dence that  each  writer  had  trustworthy 
information  concerning  all  that  is  vital  in 
the  matters  of  which  he  wrote.  No  other 
ancient  life  is  so  reliably  and  informingly 
presented  to  us  as  is  the  earthly  life,  work 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  With  this 
we  should  be  content,  for  it  enables  us  to 
verify  the  truth  of  the  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  which  the  Church  has  ever  since 
proclaimed. 

3.  Criticism  of  Biblical  Teaching. 

Modern  criticism  has  brought  into  bold 
relief  the  defective  and  even  grotesque 
quality  of  much  Old  Testament  doctrine. 
The  ideas  of  Gtod,  of  justice  and  of  mar- 
riage which  are  found  in  the  Books  of 
Joshua,  Judges  and  elsewhere,  ideas  free- 
ly alleged  to  have  divine  sanction,  are  not 
in  accord  with  the  Christian  mind  and  con- 
science. What  Christian  could  consist- 
ently make  the  Song  of  Deborah  (Judges 
v,  especially  from  verse  24)  his  own,  and 
certain  vindictive  passages  in  the  Psalter, 
that  is,  taken  in  the  meaning  of  their  hu- 
man authors?  Yet  they  are  in  the  Word 
of  God.    Why  is  this? 

28 


The  answer  is  simple  and  conclusive. 
These  sentiments  and  ideas  were  charac- 
teristic of  the  childish  stage  of  religious 
education  at  which  the  chosen  people  had 
then  arrived.  They  had  to  be  tolerated, 
even  by  God,  until  the  Israelites  had 
reached  a  stage  of  spiritual  growth  which 
would  enable  them  to  understand  and  as- 
similate higher  teaching.  A  barbaric  race 
cannot  be  educated  in  divine  truth  except 
bit  by  bit,  and  God  shows  His  mercy  in 
patiently  accommodating  His  teaching  to 
this  condition  of  human  progress. 

Little  by  little  ideas  were  instilled  which 
helped  the  Israelites  to  outgrow  their 
crude  notions  of  God  and  of  His  Will.  In 
many  parts  and  in  many  manners,  with 
slowly  advancing  meaning,  God  taught  the 
Israelites,  finally  enabling  the  spiritually 
minded  among  them  to  understand  when 
He  at  last  spoke  to  them  in  His  Son,  Jesus 
Christ  (Heb.  i.  1-2).  And  it  is  His  teach- 
ing in  Jesus  Christ  which  enables  us  to 
take  the  Old  Testament  as  He  wills  us  to 
take  it — as  an  enlightening  picture  of  the 
slow  growth  of  Israel  in  true  religion. 

But  it  is  said  that  Christ  Himself  fell 
into  error,  for  example,  with  reference  to 

29 


the  time  of  His  second  coming.  This  can- 
not be  established.  It  is  true  that  He  sub- 
mitted in  His  Manhood  to  the  mental  laws 
of  human  experience,  and  that  He  learned 
things  in  the  human  way.  But  at  the  cen- 
tre of  His  personality  was  His  Godhead 
and  His  divine  intelligence.  This  intelli- 
gence could  not  obtrude  itself  into  His 
human  consciousness,  and  thus  disturb  its 
processes  and  limitations,  but  it  did  act 
after  the  hidden  manner  of  divine  grace 
so  as  to  guard  Him  from  error  in  teach- 
ing. 

He  did  not  say  that  the  second  coming 
would  occur  in  the  lifetime  of  some  of  His 
listeners,  as  some  moderns  suppose.  He 
said  that  the  signs  of  His  coming  would 
thus  be  fulfilled,  and  they  actually  were. 
The  truth  is  that  they  have  been  fulfilled 
in  every  successive  generation.  Our  Lord 
was  not  telling  when  the  end  would  come, 
but  was  describing  recurring  signs  by 
which  we  can  detect  its  continual  ap- 
proach, lest  we  should  conclude  in  the  long 
waiting  that  there  is  no  such  movement 
towards  the  end  as  He  declared.  Signs 
of  the  end  are  not  signs  of  its  immediate- 
ness,  but  of  its  constant  coming  nearer — 

30 


a  fact  which  we  need  imperatively  to  be 
reminded  of. 

So  far  from  regarding  biblical  criticism 
as  disastrous  to  the  Bible,  we  ought  to 
be  thankful  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  using 
such  criticism  to  clear  away  the  false  no- 
tions with  which  men  have  encrusted  the 
true  doctrine  of  biblical  inspiration.  The 
Bible  is  the  Word  of  God  not  as  an  in- 
fallible encyclopedia  of  universal  informa- 
tion, but  as  preserving  significant  memo- 
rials of  Christianity's  growth  and  estab- 
lishment, and  as  enabling  us  to  verify  the 
harmony  of  Church  doctrine  with  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  His  Holy 
Spirit. 


31 


CHAPTER  IV 
HOW  TO  USE  THE  BIBLE 

TO  revert  to  an  analogy  used  in  my 
first  chapter,  if  my  present  subject 
was  "How  to  Use  a  Church,"  I 
would  not  need  to  discuss  the  nature  and 
use  of  the  materials  with  which  it  is  built ; 
but  I  would  reckon  wholly  with  the  pur- 
pose of  the  completed  structure,  which  is 
divine  worship.  Similarly,  in  treating  of 
the  use  of  the  Bible  I  am  not  concerned 
with  the  nature  and  use  of  the  documents, 
independently  regarded,  which  are  built 
into  the  Bible ;  but  I  have  to  consider  how 
the  completed  Bible  is  to  be  used  so  that 
its  divine  purpose,  of  fortifying  and  edi- 
fying believers  in  Christ,  may  be  fulfilled. 
Moreover,  it  is  the  Bible,  as  built  and 
ordered  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  with  which 
I  have   to   do,  not  with  a   collection   of 

33 


ancient     documents     as     critically     and 
chronologically  re-arranged. 

1.     Its  Use  As  a  Whole. 

The  purpose  for  which  the  Bible  is 
given  to  the  Church  is  to  edify  in  the 
faith  and  religion  which  was  taught  by 
Jesus  Christ,  and  which  was  received 
from  Him  by  His  Church.  This  faith  and 
religion  has  for  its  subject  matter  and 
form  Jesus  Christ  Himself  and  His  King- 
dom— a  Kingdom  of  which  He  consti- 
tuted the  Church  to  be  the  earthly  ma- 
chinery. 

It  is  this  purpose  of  the  Bible  that  de- 
termines how  it  is  to  be  used  by  us ;  and 
upon  practical  observance  of  this  prin- 
ciple depends  our  success  both  in  discov- 
ering the  divine  meaning  of  its  several 
parts,  and  in  maintaining  its  authority. 
It  is  as  reasonable  to  ascertain  the  time 
of  the  day  by  taking  a  time-keeper  to 
pieces  for  separate  consultation  as  it  is 
to  look  for  the  biblical  meaning  of  Scrip- 
ture by  critical  exegesis  of  its  documents, 
considered  in  mutual  isolation  or  in  non- 
biblical  arrangement.  And  one  might  as 
well  expect  to  preserve  the  value  of  a 

34 


watch  while  employing  it  for  hammering 
tacks  as  to  do  justice  to  the  Bible  while 
putting  it  to  uses  other  than  that  for 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  constructed  and 
adapted  it. 

The  first  principle  to  be  adhered  to  in 
the  use  of  Scripture,  therefore,  is  to  in- 
terpret all  its  parts  in  the  Christian  con- 
nections which  the  Bible  supplies,  when 
it  is  considered  as  one  organic  whole. 
We  should  read  all  the  Scriptures  as  be- 
ing Christian,  that  is,  as  put  in  the  Bible 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  for  Christian  pur- 
poses. And  when  we  do  this,  we  shall  find 
a  unity  and  fulness  of  meaning  which 
will  otherwise  escape  our  notice.  We 
shall  find  that  the  end  of  sacred  history 
is  present,  or  implicit,  in  the  beginning; 
and  that  even  the  earlier  parts,  which 
were  originally  written  without  knowl- 
edge of  Christ,  have  acquired  in  their 
later  and  divinely  provided  biblical  con- 
text a  meaning  which  fortifies  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  And  this  is  the  real  meaning 
of  Scripture.  It  is  not  something  that 
we  have  fancifully  read  into  the  Bible, 
but  it  is  the  meaning  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  imparted  to  it  by  uniting  the 

35 


Old  Testament  with  the  New,  and  by  in- 
spiring New  Testament  writers  to  inter- 
pret the  Old  in  the  light  of  Jesus  Christ, 
God-incarnate. 

The  Bible  exhibits,  and  in  that  spiritual 
order  which  the  Spirit  wills,  the  memo- 
rials of  a  progressive  revelation  of 
Christ  and  of  His  messianic  Kingdom; 
and  in  this  fact  we  find  the  unifying  idea 
in  all  the  Scriptures — the  golden  thread 
which  connects  part  with  part,  and  which 
glorifies  the  inferior  parts  by  relating 
them  all  to  one  Gospel  event.  In  other 
words,  the  messianic  thread  is  the  means 
by  which  we  can  trace  God's  coherent 
meaning  in  the  Scriptures.  This  thread 
runs  through  the  successive  stages  of  pro- 
phetic preparation  for  Christ,  of  His 
manifestation  in  flesh,  of  His  redemptive 
victory  over  sin,  suffering  and  death,  of 
the  coming  of  His  Kingdom  with  power, 
and  of  the  apostolic  interpretation  of 
Him.  All  hangs  together;  and  all  the 
Scriptures  can  be  seen  to  embody  either 
the  text  or  the  helpful  context  of  the 
gradual  revelation  of  the  Christian  faith 
and  religion. 


36 


2.     The  Law  and  the  Prophets. 

The  religion  of  Israel  was  not  the  pro- 
duct of  a  purely  natural  development,  but 
was  determined  in  its  growth  by  divine 
tutelage,  and  by  supernatural  teaching 
and  education.  Accordingly,  as  in  all 
wise  education,  external  precepts  came 
first — the  law — and  then  came  the  more 
advanced  teaching  of  prophecy,  and  fin- 
ally of  God's  incarnate  self -manifesta- 
tion. 

It  is  now  maintained  by  critical  schol- 
ars that  the  documents  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment which  contain  the  law  are  not  as 
ancient  as  the  prophetic  books;  but  this 
is  not  inconsistent  with  what  I  am  saying. 
These  documents  confessedly  preserve 
traditional  matter.  Probably  they  repre- 
sent compilations  of  literary  materials  of 
much  earlier  date.  The  existing  arrange- 
ment of  the  Old  Testament,  therefore, 
while  it  does  not  conform  to  the  chron- 
ological order  of  the  documents  which  it 
contains,  does  agree  with  the  divine  pur- 
pose of  teaching  us  how  Israel  was  edu- 
cated in  true  religion.  In  his  childhood 
Israel  was  put  to  a  kindergarten  school 
of  significant  ceremony;  and  he  was  sub- 

37 


jected,  as  children  should  be,  to  external 
precepts  and  regulations.  It  was  to  those 
under  the  law  that  the  higher  teaching  of 
the  prophets  was  addressed. 

The  ceremonial  law,  as  I  have  said,  con- 
stituted a  sort  of  kindergarten  school. 
Its  usages  were  to  a  large  extent  tradi- 
tional and  not  peculiar  to  the  Israelites, 
but  there  was  a  marked  advance  none  the 
less,  for  these  usages  were  purged  of 
pagan  associations;  and  were  given  sym- 
bolical meanings,  prengurative  of  Christ 
and  of  the  higher  and  more  spiritual 
ritual  of  His  Church. 

Along  with  all  this  went  a  marvelous 
divine  overruling  of  the  fortunes  of 
the  chosen  people — an  overruling  which 
dates  back  to  patriarchal  times — which 
converted  the  very  history  of  the  ancients 
into  a  parable  of  prophetic  and  messianic 
meaning.  Attention  is  called  to  this  in 
the  seventy-eighth  Psalm. 

So  it  is  that  the  messianic  thread  which 
unifies  the  Old  Testament  contains  three 
strands  —  prefigurative  ritual,  manifold 
type,  and  messianic  prophecy.  The  mean- 
ing of  it  all  was,  of  course,  largely  enig- 
matical to  the  Israelites,  necessarily  so 

38 


until  the  manifestation  of  Christ  in  flesh 
laid  open  the  mystery.  But  the  growth  of 
the  messianic  hope  was  the  fruit  of  Israel 9s 
peculiar  experience  under  God,  and  the 
meanings  which  Christians  are  able  to 
detect  in  this  experience,  as  exhibited  to 
us  in  God's  Bible,  constitute  the  higher 
and  divine  significance  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

Too  often  the  Old  Testament  is  used 
merely  as  a  source  of  moral  tales.  No 
doubt  it  can  furnish  many  of  them.  But 
its  true  use  is  to  fortify  Christian  teach- 
ing. To  give  an  example,  the  story  of 
Joseph  is  more  than  a  morally  edifying 
tale.  In  its  divine  and  biblical  meaning, 
it  is  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  in  terms  of 
ancient  Israel's  life — a  life  that  was  con- 
tinually, although  unwittingly,  rehears- 
ing, so  to  speak,  the  drama  of  Eedemption. 
Type  after  type,  figure  after  figure,  and 
prophecy  after  prophecy,  make  up  the 
woof  and  warp  of  a  literature  which  could 
never  have  exhibited  so  many  signs  of 
this  kind,  all  pointing  Christward,  if  a 
supernatural  inspiration  had  not  gath- 
ered them  there  for  our  edification,  in 

39 


order  that  we  might  see  in  Jesus  Christ 
the  explanation  of  all  the  ages  gone  by. 

3.     Evidential  Use. 

Thanks  to  the  wide-spread  habit  of  re- 
garding the  Bible  as  the  original  and  sole 
source  and  rule  of  faith,  it  has  too  often 
been  degraded  to  the  level  of  a  manual 
of  proof-texts.  And  this  method  of  treat- 
ing the  Bible  leads  people  to  miss  the 
wood  because  of  the  trees — that  is,  to 
overlook  the  larger,  structural  and  or- 
ganic meaning  of  Scripture  through  ex- 
cessive absorption  in  critical  scrutiny  of 
fragmentary  parts.  Text  is  cited  against 
text,  and  the  Bible  is  practically  reduced 
for  each  contentious  reader  to  a  collec- 
tion of  testimonies  to  the  truth  of  his 
favorite  doctrines. 

The  Christian  faith  came  not  from 
Scripture,  but  from  Christ  to  His  Church, 
and  through  the  Church  to  us.  The  Bible 
undoubtedly  contains  this  faith,  but  not 
in  the  form  of  definitive  proof-texts. 
Bather  it  is  a  varied  literature,  which  to 
believers  is  seen  to  confirm  the  Church's 
teaching  and  to  make  the  faithful  wise 
unto  salvation. 

40 


Biblical  proof  of  doctrine  lies  in  the 
marvelous  harmony  of  the  Bible  as  a 
whole — as  a  flashlight  on  the  growth  of 
true  religion — with  the  faith  once  for  all 
delivered  to  the  saints,  a  faith  which  sums 
up  the  doctrinal  meaning  of  that  growth. 
Consequently  the  evidential  use  of  Scrip- 
ture is  to  confirm  believers  in  their  faith, 
rather  than  to  supply  arguments  for  use 
with  unbelievers;  although  some  of  its 
contents,  considered  simply  as  historical, 
and  without  reference  to  inspiration,  can 
thus  be  used. 

If  I  had  space,  I  might  vindicate  the 
real,  although  incidental  value  of  critical 
exegesis,  as  a  necessary  adjunct  of  an  in- 
telligent evidential  use  of  Scripture.  It 
is  more  pertinent  to  my  purpose  to  call 
attention  to  a  very  common  and  mis- 
taken idea  that  each  biblical  writer's  per- 
sonal meaning  is  the  whole  divine  mean- 
ing of  his  language  in  the  completed 
Bible — as  if  the  mind  of  each  workman  in 
building  a  cathedral  were  an  adequate 
measure  of  the  significance  which  his  pro- 
duct acquires  in  the  finished  structure  of 
God's  temple. 

We  must  use  the  Bible  as  a  whole  and 

41 


for  its  divinely  intended  purpose,  if  we 
would  see  what  it  teaches  and  what  it  con- 
firms; and  this  means  that  the  devout  be- 
liever is  the  only  successful  interpreter 
and  user  of  Holy  Writ.  Critical  scholar- 
ship will  undoubtedly  help  him;  but  only 
as  a  Christian  believer  can  he  gain  the 
spiritual  standpoint  of  its  divine  In- 
spires and  assimilate  its  sacred  meaning. 


42 


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